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Proud to Be a ‘Mompreneur’

By Jill Salzman March 21, 2012 11:18 amMarch 21, 2012 11:18 am

Why can’t mompreneurs wear the label with pride?

I’m a mother, and I run a business: the Founding Moms, the world’s first and only kid-friendly collective of meet-ups for mom entrepreneurs. I’m a mom, and an entrepreneur: a mompreneur (or a momtrepreneur, a word I like even better). And I’m proud of it.

Others, though, aren’t exactly embracing the term. An editor at a very popular business magazine told me that while he’d be happy to discuss what I do, his magazine “has a firm ban on the term ‘mompreneur.’ ” Even many female business owners insist that the word is derogatory, and even demeaning.

The Grindstone’s Lindsay Cross wrote a blog post called “I Hate Mompreneurs But I Support Women in Business.” The word “mompreneur,” she argued, marginalizes entrepreneurs who are also mothers. “In a world where business owners are expected to prove total dedication to their product, their possible stockholders and their bottom line, it makes sure that everyone knows that these women have other priorities.”

But in an age of Internet transparency, social media and in particular Facebook, where people reveal their habits and their lives constantly, why must the kids be kept a secret? What’s the advantage of hiding the role of motherhood? I get that people prefer facades. Their desire to appear professional overrides the truth of their day-to-day lives. Whoever decided that “professionalism” meant “devoid of parenthood” was clearly not living in the reality that the rest of us are. It’s true that a few people don’t think mothers belong in business. But when we reject the “mom” label, we’re missing an opportunity to change their minds.

I never encountered this sentiment so strongly until I decided not only to embrace the word mompreneur, but to create a business around it: while developing a different company, I yearned to find other women who were raising companies and children at the same time, just like me. I invited neighborhood mother entrepreneurs to coffee by creating a meet-up on Meetup.com and hoped that three to four women would show up.

Six months in, we had 200 members. Now the Founding Moms has 2,500 members in over 30 cities around the world.

But I still give people the giggles. Describe myself as an entrepreneur? Impressive. Tell people that I work with moms? Cute.

I’m often told not to bring up the “mom” aspect of what I do when I am asked to speak at business associations, conferences and conventions. Recently, a well-known association booked me to speak, and the coordinator, who disagreed with the rest of her voting committee, told me that when they heard what I do, “the women winced, cringed, and reacted strongly to anything mom-related, even though most women in the room are mothers themselves. They prefer to be seen as businesswomen, not moms.”

I couldn’t believe it, and I still can’t.

As long as people continue to propagate the notion that mothers who run businesses shouldn’t admit to maternity, we’ll never be taken seriously. And we should be taken seriously. A parent who can manage the juggling and the balancing that is both running a company and raising a family is someone who can handle anything. We mompreneurs”(and our dad counterparts) are doing a great job of running our businesses, no matter what you call us — and we should welcome a word that encompasses both of our allegiances.

I’m a mompreneur. If you hate the word, I’d argue that it’s your discomfort with my priorities that’s the problem, not my willingness to acknowledge those priorities. Motherhood, and entrepreneurship, mix rather well. Put the words together, and they make a label, and a mantle, that I’m happy to wear.

About

We're all living the family dynamic, as parents, as children, as siblings, uncles and aunts. At Motherlode, lead writer and editor KJ Dell’Antonia invites contributors and commenters to explore how our families affect our lives, and how the news affects our families—and all families. Join us to talk about education, child care, mealtime, sports, technology, the work-family balance and much more